Cockpit Trouble – how to do it better – part 3
(This is the last of a three-part series on Intelligent Process Automation, and why it produces amazing results for some organizations, but barely limps along in others. Read Part I here, and Part II here.)
In Part I of this series, we talk about what strategic considerations you need to consider in order to make your IPA practice thrive. In Part II, we delve into some of the more tactical issues around practice organization and Opportunity identification. In this part, we continue the tactical focus and wrap up by discussing delivery, operations, and training.
Deliver with care
To start automating processes, capture the correct information in the define phase to avoid problems, so involve knowledgeable subject matter experts in this activity. It is also worth holding a process walk-through for the right audience. Each chosen automated process must be documented and an understanding gained of how it will differ from the same human process. Once this has all been agreed with the business, and the process design authority has approved the proposed blueprint and conducted the necessary peer reviews – development can begin. Only when the business is satisfied, can sign-off testing begin.
Maintaining operations
Once processes are in production, they need the right support around them. Ensure that Digital Workers are handing back business referrals, or exceptions, to the operational team for manual intervention, and that a technical capability is readily available in case the Digital Workers do not act as expected. Ultimately, to ensure continuity and availability of automation resources, there must be a robust, supporting IT infrastructure. Give some though to how you will monitor for the end-to-end result you are striving to achieve. (More on this in a future post)
Train and retain the RPA team
Appointing high-quality lead developers is essential to deal with the inevitable IPA pain points but these people can be extremely difficult to find in the current market. Developers will need to be trained to the highest standard in development and process analysis. This way, they can perform in a hybrid role, while receiving on-site support from an experienced consultant. As a development team continues to grow, appoint a Design Authority to ensure standards are maintained and a Control Room Monitor to manage the production robots.
Having the best talent in IPA is the life blood of any successful initiative and with these skills being increasingly more sought after has led to demand outweighing supply. Therefore, it is worth considering a partner that provides the human resources, governance, management, and methodologies to support global learning programs and integrate training into rapidly expanding IPA implementations.
In our engagements, we will source, train, and mentor a fully accredited IPA team of people within weeks through our ScaleSafe™ model. This team is then committed for several years and are equipped to maintain a dynamic, sustainable center of intelligent automation excellence.
Final thoughts
Ultimately, to gain the best results with IPA, we must define the complete journey upfront, rather than waiting for mistakes and then correcting after. Once we gain company-wide support and create a vision of desired results, start delivering, and fail fast. Allow the IPA program to really thrive as it scales across the business. Get this mix right and you will create the platform to explore and build more intelligent automation offerings – using AI and other emerging technologies – to maintain innovation and sustainable success. You will be climbing away, while most other people will be struggling to stay aloft.
Are you struggling with your IPA journey? Consider having us do a maturity assessment to help tweak your process and provide actionable insight to align with the latest industry best practices. Need to upskill your crew? Look at some of our training offerings here. Finally, we are expanding! Do you strive to be among the best in the world at delivering IPA value to businesses? Consider joining our team.